The Problem With Mike Lee

The indecency perpetrated by the black-helicopter faction of the Republican party on Tuesday as regards the UN treaty on the rights of the disabled continued to smack gobs last night and into this morning. I have no patience with anyone who claims to be "surprised," however, or saddened. Anyone who claims to be surprised or saddened hasn't been paying attention to Republican politics for the past three decades. It was always headed toward something like this. When Rick Santorum wrote that he was afraid the UN was going to steal his disabled daughter under this treaty, he wasn't saying anything more nutty than everything else on which he campaigned for president, and possibly will again.

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I also have no patience for people who ponder the tender consciences of "decent Republicans" (Steve Clemons, whom I otherwise admire, went on for a bit about this with kindly Doc Maddow last night.) There are no "decent Republicans" any more, as yesterday's vote demonstrated conclusively. Orrin Hatch, and Saxby Chambliss, and Huckleberry Closetcase are not "decent Republicans" just because they cast an atrocious vote to avoid being primaried by crazy people. (In the case of Chambliss, he also is not a "decent Republican" because of the indecent campaign he ran against Max Cleland, which gives Chambliss two moral offenses against the disabled in one career.) There are no "decent Republicans." There are only empowered crackpots and their cowardly enablers.

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Chief among the former is "constitutional scholar" Mike Lee, the rookie senator from Utah, who was still crowing on his website this morning about the great victory he won over the onrushing hordes of UN curb-cutters, and his signature triumph over common sense.

"America is the gold standard when it comes to protecting the rights of the disabled. Today's vote doesn't change that," said Lee after the vote. "Instead, the Senate rightfully rejected a treaty that could threaten the rights of parents to determine the best education, treatment, and care for their disabled children. It also halted our possible descent down the rabbit hole of international 'entitlement rights' — which could have serious consequences for domestic law. I applaud the Senate for preserving our sovereignty."

This is, of course, insane, and is there anyone who truly believes that Lee would have voted for that "gold standard" — the Americans With Disabilities Act — if it had come before the Senate while he was a member, and I do mean "member," of that body? After all, Mike Lee is the Senate's leading Tenther, opposed even to federal child-labor laws on the basis of state sovereignity. All things being equal, Mike Lee would be sitting in on weekends for Alex Jones on the radio. Instead, because of the good citizens of Utah, he's in the Senate. There's nothing we can do about that. But, if there were "decent Republicans," there are things they could do to limit the damage he can inflict on the rest of the nation.

No later than tomorrow, it could be explained to Senator Lee that he has worked to embarrass his country, his institution, and his party in the eyes of the nation and the world. It could be explained to him that the U.S. Senate is not going to conform to the leaky contents of his own paranoid brainpan. As part of this explanation, it could be made clear to Senator Lee that his seat on the Senate Judiciary Committee now belongs to someone else. It could be made clear to him that no funds from the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee will be available to him now, or in the foreseeable future. It could be made clear to him that he is not welcome at the 2016 Republican National Convention, and that he will not be allowed into the hall even if he buys a ticket. (Hell, they almost did it to Ron Paul this time around.) It could be made clear to him that any primary challenge to sitting Republican senators elsewhere will be held to his personal account, and that the sanctions will be more severe if that challenge is successful, and infinitely more severe if the challenger is defeated in the general election, costing the party a seat. It could be made clear to him that, because of his reckless disregard for anything except his own bizarre theories and groundless night-terrors, he is now a non-person within the Republican caucus. If the people of Utah want to be represented by a non-person, they're welcome to him. But that shouldn't be our problem as well.

John Boehner already went part of the way to a similar solution in the House yesterday, booting some Tea Party rookies out of their committee assignments because they behaved dickishly toward the party's best interests. I give him half a gold star for that. It was only the decent thing to do. Your turn, Mitch.